Technical efficiency in maize production by small-scale farmers in Ga-Mothiba, Limpopo Province, South Africa

Abstract:

Maize is the most important cereal crop grown in South Africa. This crop is
produced throughout the country under diverse environments. The study only
focuses on the technical efficiency because it is an important subject in
developing agriculture where resources are limited, but high population growth is
very common. Technical efficiency is the ability of a farmer to obtain output from
a given set of physical inputs. Farmers have a tendency of under and/or overutilising
the factors of production.
The main aim of this study was to analyse the technical efficiency of small-scale
maize producers in Ga-Mothiba rural community of Limpopo Province. The
objective of the study was to determine the level of technical efficiency of smallscale
maize producers and to identify the socio-economic characteristics that
influence technical efficiency of small-scale maize producers in Ga-Mothiba.
Purposive and Snowball sampling techniques were used to collect primary data
from 120 small-scale farmers. Cobb-Douglas production function was used to
determine the level of technical efficiency and Logistic regression model was
used to analyse the variables that have influence the technical efficiency of
maize production.
Cobb-Douglas results reveal that small-scale farmers in Ga-Mothiba are
experiencing technical inefficiency in maize production due to the decreasing
return to scale, which means they are over-utilising factors of production. Logistic
regression results indicate that out of 13 variables included in the analysis as
socio-economic factors, 10 of them (level of education, income of the household
on monthly basis, farmer`s farming experience, farm size, cost of tractor hours,
fertiliser application, purchased hybrid maize seeds, membership to farmers`
organisation, is maize profitable) were found to be significant and 3 (gender, age
and hired labour) are non-significant. However, farm size was found to be the
vi
most significant variable at 99% level, showing a positive relationship to smallscale
maize producer`s technical efficiency.
Therefore, it is recommended that government should do the on-farm training
since farmers mainly depend on trial and error and farmers` should have access
to enough arable land and tractor services. However, farmers need to be trained
on matters relating to fertiliser application, on the amount of seeds a farmer
should apply per ha, and the importance of using hybrid seed.